Bosque County Property Tax & Sales Tax

Bosque County Tax Rates - At a Glance

Bosque County Current Tax Rates Summary

Tax Type	Rate	Notes
Property Tax (combined)	~1.56% of value	No single county rate - the sum of school district, city, county, hospital district, and groundwater district on a City of Clifton / Clifton ISD parcel. Representative nominal stack; typical effective rate runs about 0.98% of market value.
County's own rate	$0.341000 / $100	Bosque County government portion only: M&O $0.320100 + debt $0.020900
Hospital / college district	Hospital yes, college no	Bosque County Hospital District $0.093240 (Goodall-Witcher); Middle Trinity Groundwater CD $0.005950; no community-college district
Annual Vehicle (Car) Tax	None	Texas levies no annual value-based vehicle property tax
Sales Tax	8.25%	6.25% state + 0.50% Bosque County + 1.50% city (Clifton); groceries and most unprepared food exempt
Homestead Exemption	$140,000 school + 10% cap	Statutory school-district homestead; over-65 owners get an additional $60,000 school exemption.
Due Date	January 31	Delinquent February 1; statewide protest deadline May 15

Bosque County Property Tax

Bosque County property tax comes in two numbers that are easy to confuse. The county's own adopted rate is $0.341000 per $100 of value for the 2025 tax year - and it is only the Bosque County government's portion. Your actual bill is the sum of every overlapping taxing unit that covers your parcel: your school district, your city (if any), the county, the county hospital district, and the groundwater district. Combined, the typical total effective rate in Bosque County is about 0.98% of market value - an estimate from Census ACS 2024 5-year data (median real estate taxes paid $1,959 divided by median home value $200,900), among the lower county effective rates in Texas. Because the mix of taxing units differs from parcel to parcel, there is no single "Bosque County rate" for a full bill; the figures below are worked examples.

Bosque County's own rate of $0.341000 is a single county levy (M&O $0.320100 + debt $0.020900). On top of the county, every parcel also carries two countywide special districts: the Bosque County Hospital District ($0.093240), which supports Goodall-Witcher Healthcare in Clifton, and the Middle Trinity Groundwater Conservation District ($0.005950). A Bosque County Emergency Services District ($0.031000) funds rural fire and EMS in its service area. There is no community-college taxing district in Bosque County. Meridian is the county seat; Clifton, the largest city, is known as "the Norwegian Capital of Texas" and home to the Bosque Museum, and the county draws visitors to Lake Whitney and Meridian State Park.

How a typical Bosque County (City of Clifton) bill is built (taxing-unit stack)

School district City County Hospital + groundwater

City of Clifton / Clifton ISD parcel - adopted rates per $100 (2025 tax year)

Taxing unit	Rate /$100	Type
Clifton ISD	$0.771500	School
City of Clifton	$0.346050	City
Bosque County	$0.341000	County
Bosque County Hospital District	$0.093240	Hospital
Middle Trinity Groundwater CD	$0.005950	Special
Nominal total	~$1.557740	~1.56%

Rates from the Bosque County Appraisal District 2025 adopted tax rates. This example is for a City of Clifton / Clifton ISD parcel; your total depends on your city and school district. Other school districts include Valley Mills ISD ($0.927810), Cranfills Gap ISD ($0.916900), Meridian ISD ($0.791800), Iredell ISD ($0.745690), and Kopperl ISD ($0.657600). Unincorporated Clifton ISD parcels pay no city rate (about $1.211690 combined). A Bosque County ESD ($0.031000) applies to parcels in its service area.

Where your property-tax dollar goes

Clifton ISD ~49.5% City ~22.2% County ~21.9% Hospital + groundwater ~6.4%

On a typical City of Clifton / Clifton ISD parcel, Clifton ISD is about 49.5% of the nominal bill ($0.771500 / $1.557740 nominal total), the City of Clifton about 22.2%, Bosque County about 21.9%, and the hospital and groundwater districts together about 6.4%. Percentages are rounded and use the nominal posted rates before any exemption - after the $140,000 school-district homestead exemption the taxable amount drops sharply, which is part of why the county's typical effective rate (about 0.98%) sits below the nominal stacked rate (about 1.56%).

Who appraises, bills, and collects in Bosque County

• The Bosque County Appraisal District sets appraised values, processes homestead exemptions, and runs protests, at bosquecad.com (254-435-2304).
• The Bosque County Tax Assessor-Collector collects the property tax and also handles vehicle registration and titling, at bosquecountytaxoffice.com (Meridian, 254-435-2301).

For value questions, start with the appraisal district; to pay, start with the Bosque County Tax Assessor-Collector.

Homestead exemption, the 10% cap, and key dates

If you own and occupy your home as your principal residence on January 1, you can claim a residence homestead exemption, and you generally apply through the Bosque County Appraisal District. For a Clifton ISD parcel, the statewide school-district exemption removes $140,000 from the value the school district taxes for the 2025 tax year. If the owner is 65 or older, an additional $60,000 ISD exemption applies.

Some Bosque County cities also grant local-option homestead exemptions, but the exact per-unit amounts vary and were not fully extracted in this pass. Because those interact with each unit's own value, the calculator below models only the statutory $140,000 school-district homestead and treats its output as the conservative (high) end - a real over-65 homestead bill is lower. Confirm the exact exemptions on your account with the Bosque County Appraisal District.

Separately, the 10% homestead appraisal cap limits how much your homestead's appraised (taxed) value can rise to 10% per year, not counting new improvements. The cap applies to the appraised value used for your bill, not the market value the appraisal district sets, and it starts the year after you first qualify for the homestead exemption.

Key dates: payment is due January 31 and unpaid amounts become delinquent February 1. The statewide protest deadline is May 15 or 30 days after your appraisal notice is delivered, whichever is later. Texas Tax Code Section 1.06 rolls any deadline that falls on a weekend or holiday to the next business day. We were not able to extract a Bosque County-specific delinquent penalty-and-interest schedule from an official source in this pass, so no penalty percentages are stated on this page.

How to protest your appraisal

Protests go to the Bosque County Appraisal District, which publishes its protest procedures and deadlines and runs the property search and appeals process. File and track everything at bosquecad.com. Some private firms offer to handle protests for a percentage of any tax savings; such firms exist and charge a contingency fee, but we do not cite any savings figure or success rate as fact - results vary by parcel and year.

Estimate your Bosque County property tax

Sources: Bosque County Appraisal District 2025 adopted tax rates (county rate and the Clifton-area unit rates), the Bosque County Appraisal District (appraised values and exemptions), the Texas Comptroller (sales tax), and Census ACS 2024 5-year estimates (typical effective rate). See the tax guides for how Texas homestead, protest, and appraisal-cap rules work.

Vehicle Taxes in Texas

Unlike many states, Texas does not levy an annual value-based property tax on cars or other vehicles. There is no yearly "car tax" bill in Bosque County. Instead, vehicle taxes in Texas work two ways:

• One-time motor-vehicle sales/use tax of 6.25% at purchase. For a private-party sale, the tax is charged on the greater of the actual sales price or 80% of the vehicle's Standard Presumptive Value (SPV). A vehicle received as a gift is taxed at a flat $10 instead.
• A flat annual registration fee (plus any local add-ons), which is a fixed fee, not a tax on the vehicle's value. In Bosque County you register and title through the Bosque County Tax Assessor-Collector.

So if you searched for a Texas car or vehicle sales tax, the answer is the one-time 6.25% charged when the vehicle is titled - there is no recurring vehicle property tax to budget for each year.

Bosque County Sales Tax

The combined sales tax rate in the City of Clifton is 8.25% - the Texas maximum. It is made up of the 6.25% state rate, a 0.50% Bosque County rate, and a 1.50% city rate. Bosque County does levy its own 0.50% county sales tax, which applies countywide - so even outside a city the rate is 6.75%. Texas law caps the total local portion at 2.0%, so once the county's 0.50% and the city's 1.50% are combined, no further local rate can stack on top - which is why 8.25% is the maximum combined sales tax here.

City of Clifton (Bosque County) sales tax components

Component	Rate
Texas state rate	6.25%
Bosque County	0.50%
City of Clifton (local)	1.50%
Combined rate	8.25%

The 2.00% local share is the maximum Texas allows and here is split between the 0.50% county rate and the 1.50% city rate. Outside city limits the rate is 6.75% (state plus the countywide 0.50%). The exact city-versus-economic-development split of the Clifton local rate varies. Groceries and most unprepared food are exempt from sales tax.

Real Example: a $200,900 Clifton Home

Here is how the numbers flow on a representative $200,900 City of Clifton / Clifton ISD home (the county median value) with a homestead exemption (owner under 65), applying only the school-district homestead to the school unit:

• Market value: $200,900.
• Homestead exemption: the $140,000 school-district exemption drops the Clifton ISD taxable value to $60,900. The other units tax the full $200,900 in this simplified example.
• Stacked total: school $60,900 × 0.771500% = ~$470; city $200,900 × 0.346050% = ~$695; county $200,900 × 0.341000% = ~$685; hospital $200,900 × 0.093240% = ~$187; groundwater $200,900 × 0.005950% = ~$12.
• Estimated annual bill: about $2,049 per year.
• Monthly equivalent: about $171 per month.
• Effective rate: about 1.02% of market value in this simplified example.

How this compares to the county-wide median. The Census ACS county-wide median bill is about $1,959 (roughly 0.98% effective). This Clifton city example lands almost exactly on it. A homesteaded parcel with no city rate (school + county + hospital + groundwater, roughly $1,354 on the same $200,900 value) would pay closer to 0.67%, and a real over-65 homestead - with the extra $60,000 school exemption and the school-tax ceiling - would be lower still. A non-homestead $200,900 Clifton parcel would pay closer to the full nominal ~1.56%, or about $3,130.

Limitations:

• Your total varies by school district and city; a Meridian, Valley Mills, Cranfills Gap, Iredell, Kopperl, or unincorporated parcel uses a different stack.
• Local-option city homestead exemptions (and over-65, disability, and disabled-veteran exemptions) are not modeled in the simplified example above; this example applies only the school-district homestead, so a real homesteaded city bill is lower.
• Bosque County's exact delinquent penalty-and-interest schedule was not available from an official source in this pass and is not stated here.
• New-construction homes are often taxed on land only in the first year, then jump once the structure is on the roll.
• This is an estimate, not a parcel-exact bill. The typical effective rate is a Census ACS estimate, not a guaranteed rate.